Fifty Shades just an old-fashioned love story: EL James

Fifty Shades of Grey

EL James has said that the extraordinary success of her ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ novel is down to old-fashioned romance rather than the sex.

The author said that the trilogy has sold 31 million copies worldwide, overtaking ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code in Britain,’ because it tells a simple love story.

However, James said she was unhappy that teenage girls are reading the books because the content is strictly adults-only.

The 49-year-old writer made a rare public appearance on Wednesday night to promote ‘Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album,’ a tie-in featuring music that “inspired” her writing and features in the books. It includes pieces by Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

She was asked whether female readers were attracted by the adventurous bedroom scenes or the fantasy of dating a ludicrously rich man.

“No, it’s the love story. Women like to read a passionate love story. There is sex but as the books go on the sex changes as the relationship changes. You see the evolution of it,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

James said she that was inundated with emails from readers who said the books had changed their lives and, in many cases, saved their marriages.

“Women of all ages are reading it - from women at university right through to women in their nineties,” she said.

“I get the most TMI [too much information] emails you could ever hope for. People go and try this stuff.

“I hope teenagers aren’t reading it but I think a few are because I get emails from them as well, and I wish they weren’t,” she added.